POSN SITE JUST WON’T SHUT DOWN

Porn site resists closure
Attorney for one of 2 men in case says site is causing difficultiesBy Geoffrey Fattah

Deseret Morning News

An attorney for one of two Utah men charged with running several child pornography Web sites told a federal judge Friday that although most of the sites have been shut down, they are having difficulty shutting down a site located on a server overseas.

During an arraignment hearing before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells, Lynn Donaldson, attorney for Charles Philip Granere, said the 26-year-old Internet company owner had taken down all the Web sites on servers within his control. However, Donaldson said one site was on a server overseas that they have had difficulty getting shut down.

Granere and his business partner, Matthew Duhamel, 32, are charged with counts of possessing, receiving and transmitting child pornography. Federal prosecutors say the two men netted tens of thousands of dollars in profits from people who paid to have access to their sites. The sites show 9- and 10-year-old girls dressed in scant clothing in sexually provocative poses. Both men say the photos are not pornographic in nature.

Attorneys for Granere and Duhamel entered pleas of not guilty to the charges on Friday. A 10-day trial has been scheduled for May 15. Wells placed May 1 as the cutoff date for any plea bargains the two men may strike with prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin Fojtik said if convicted, Duhamel and Granere face a combined maximum of 50 years in federal prison with a 10-year minimum mandatory.

Both men remain under supervised release. Duhamel, a local television personality who worked for a short time as a weather forecaster for KUTV Channel 2 under the name Matt McCoy, has been allowed to live with his disabled father in Washington pending the outcome of the case. Both men are under court order not to have access to the Internet or have unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 years of age.